RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D, New Hampshire) is afraid that she’ll lose.

Ah, my droogies: let me show you the wickedness of the world. Or at least the wickedness of Jeanne Shaheen’s reelection campaign.

It all started when this rather bizarre post went up on the Jeanne Shaheen website (don’t worry, safe link). You look at that, and you think to yourself: That looks a lot like the framework of an ad – complete with stock photos! – that the Shaheen campaign would very much like a third-party group to grab and turn into an actual campaign commercial, only the campaign can’t actually say that.

And the reason why you would think that is because that’s what it is. You see, candidates cannot coordinate with third party political Super-PACs, thanks to the amazingly bizarre and remarkably pointless regulatory regime that we like to call ‘campaign finance reform.’ But as that link shows, there’s nothing stopping campaigns from putting up public ‘Important Messages,’ and then looking surprised when a third-party group turns that message into a campaign ad.

Lest you think that I am exaggerating, the Washington Post has at least one writer who’s in on the scheme: “Kinda, sorta looks like Jeanne Shaheen’s campaign posted script for a 30-second ad to its site. Who will run the ad?”

As the NRSC (yes, I know, but they’re right about this) points out, that ad buy was completely expected – they predicted it yesterday – and represents an attempt to get around the rules. And it’s not the first time: the Democrats are doing this in North Carolina and Arkansas.

…And that’s one reason why I am chuckling, as well as hopping mad. Consider, for a moment: why is the Shaheen campaign ordering this ad? They have an ad team; they have a budget; they have access to New Hampshire media. If they wanted this ad put out there, why didn’t they just do it themselves? And the answer to that is The Jeanne Shaheen campaign does not think that it has enough in the way of resources to win this election on their own. Which is another way of saying Jeanne Shaheen’s reelection campaign is in trouble.

That’s a very interesting thing, isn’t it? – Because I was hearing from a lot of people that the New Hampshire Senate race was a bridge too far for the Republican party. I guess nobody told the Shaheen campaign that, huh?

PS: “Better safe than sorry” proves my point, actually. New Hampshire was supposed to be ‘safe’ already. But apparently it is not.

PPS: We will now pause as Democrats search desperately for any counter-example that they can find. Free hint: try Mitch McConnell. I hear that he released some stock footage. Thin gruel for the Left, but that’s kind of a theme for this election cycle anyway.